The Cream of the Crop #SAMAXXI

The nominees of the South African Music Awards (SAMAs) were announced on Thursday, 12 March 2015 at The Rand Club in Johannesburg. The Hip Hop genre dominated the scene, with its two giants, K. O and Cassper Nyovest leading the nominations. The two artists each have five nominations. Cassper has been nominated under the categories for Best Rap, Best Collaboration, Best Album, Best Male and Best Newcomer. He will be contesting these awards with K.O for all nominations besides the Best Newcomer. The plot thickens because Hip Hop Artists, AKA and Duncan also have an equal (three) number of nominations.

Pop trio, Beatenberg also scored themselves five nominations in the categories of Best Pop Album, Best Collaboration, Best Duo/Group, Best Newcomer and Best Album. After fourteen years in the music industry, Prime Circle has shown that they are still relevant by scoring themselves four nominations. The group has been nominated in the categories for Best Rock Album, Best Music Video, Best Producer and Best Engineer for their album Let the Night in. A controversial moment was when AKA’s Congratulate and/or Run Jozi were not nominated in the category for best video. “I really think that AKA’s Congratulate deserved to be nominated for best video #SAMAXII” Cassper posted on twitter.

Singing sensation, Zonke Dikana and industry veteran, Ringo Madlingozi also have three nominations. Zonke is nominated in the categories of Best R&B/Soul/Raggae Album, Best Producer and Best Female Artist. Ringo is nominated for Best African Adult Album, Album of the Year and Best Male Artist.

This year will be the 21st instalment of these awards which have been branded as #SAMAXXI. The awards ceremony will be broadcast live from Sun City on SABC 1 on the 19th of April 2015.